French kiss
To celebrate Valerie Masterson‘s turning 85 tomorrow, Trove Thursday offers a second annual birthday salute to the English soprano.
Christopher Corwin
Christopher Corwin began writing for parterre box in 2011 under the pen name “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has also appeared in , The New York Times, Musical America, The Observer, San Francisco Classical Voice and BAMNotes. Like many, he came to opera via the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts which he began listening to at age 11. His particular enthusiasm is 17th and 18th century opera. Since 2015 he has curated the weekly podcast Trove Thursday on parterre box presenting live recordings.
Reminiscences of Mozart
The great Spanish mezzo soprano Teresa Berganza died on May 13 at the age of 89, so Trove Thursday salutes one of its favorites with a pair of dazzling rare live Mozart performances.
Spaced out
Before Wednesday I don’t remember gasping when I entered a concert venue.
The Multiverse of Morley
A Trove Thursday Mega-Post © featuring the wonderful American soprano Erin Morley in Orff’s Carmina Burana and Richard Strauss’s Brentano Lieder, plus extended live excerpts from Handel’s Orlando, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots.
A deed without a name
Trove Thursday offers Ernst Bloch’s 1910 Macbeth featuring Inge Borkh and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni and Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas starring Thomas Allen with Christine Barbaux and Josephine Veasey as the women in his life.
Mainly in the plain
I wonder why many New Yorkers have been led to believe that the only Handel conductor in the world is Harry Bicket.
X-otica
A motley crew of Piotr Beczala, Ian Bostridge, Anders J. Dahlin, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Ernst Häfliger, Jonas Kaufmann, Mark Padmore, Peter Pears, Julian Prégardien, Andreas Schager and Jon Vickers.
Everyone’s gone to the moon
The Met’s recent Ariadne auf Naxos and Elektra combo left me wanting more and more Richard Strauss, so Trove Thursday offers a complete Capriccio with Jonas Kaufmann (his one-and-only Flamand) and Christopher Maltman vying for Soile Isokoski.
The slave who would be queen
The Met’s Nabucco revival was an early pandemic casualty and it’s unlikely to be rescheduled anytime soon as its raison d’être has been (at least temporarily) banished, so Trove Thursday programs Verdi’s early success with Rita Hunter, Kostas Paskalis and Ferruccio Furlanetto, plus a cabaletta-quiz in which 15 sopranos tackle “Salgo già!”
She wants to be a prima donna
Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera marked its 70th birthday in 2021 by presenting four prima donnas who made important early appearances at the festival in solo recitals across the globe.
Lise with a Z(emlinsky)
Recent discussion about soprano Lise Davidsen has included much speculation about music she might undertake in the future.
A crazier day
Saturday’s performance of Le nozze di Figaro at the Met mined the humor from Mozart’s divine setting of Beaumarchais’s play about a crazy day in the Almaviva household.
Rhymes of Passion
Though several other versions have recently been performed and recorded, Handel’s remains the best-known Brockes Passion.
Sir John in Munich
Otto Nicolai’s Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor makes a rare and welcome reappearance next month thanks to Juilliard Opera.
Mark, with thee we mean to live
People these days often exclaim “…..is everything!” but often it feels like gross hyperbole. But surely anyone who has seen Mark Morris’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato since it premiered in 1989 would agree that it is indeed everything!
Through different eyes
I was reminded at the Met’s season premiere of Eugene Onegin Friday night always to expect the unexpected.
Light up my Rameau
For those who complain (not entirely unfairly) that Handel operas are “just a string of da capo arias,” I sometimes mutter to myself, “Have they ever tried Rameau?”
The favorite
Gabriela Benacková, one of Trove Thursday’s favorite sopranos, turns 75 tomorrow, so we celebrate with two rare complete Verdi portrayals.
But whom to love?To trust and treasure?
Trove Thursday welcomes the return to the Met of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin on March 25 with a collection of important moments from the opera.
Seria effect
While it must be admitted that Elza van den Heever doesn’t have an ideally warm and agile Handel voice, she evidenced fierce control over her instrument and skillfully built a powerful portrait of the courageous Rodelida fighting for her survival.
Bag it up
Jaromir Weinberger’s Svanda dudák is rarely performed at all and more often than not in German rather than its original Czech, so Trove Thursday inevitably offers Schwanda der Dudelsackpfeifer from Dresden with Marjorie Owens, Tichina Vaughn, Christoph Pohl and Ladislav Elgr.
French twist
The Met’s new Don Carlos has prompted a lot of discussion lately about opera-in-translation, so Trove Thursday this week offers two works unexpectedly performed in French: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snegourotchka and Weber’s Euryanthe.
Back to black
When was the last time the Metropolitan Opera mounted a new production that was musically outstanding yet the direction and/or design mostly sucked?
Old masters
Jordi Savall and William Christie, 80 and 77 respectively, stand as the two senior masters whose recordings and appearances have done the most over the past decades to build a healthy local enthusiasm for pre-Classical music.
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
